Article 5–11 (Part I

Article 5 of the Constitution forms part of Part II (Citizenship) and was intended as a onetime, transitional provision applicable at the commencement of the Constitution on 26 January 1950. It granted Indian citizenship primarily on the basis of domicile in the territory of India, coupled with conditions such as birth in India, parentage, or ordinary residence for a prescribed period. The framers deliberately avoided a purely racial or religious basis for citizenship and instead adopted a territorial–domiciliary principle, consistent with constitutional secularism. Articles 6 and 7 separately dealt with migrants to and from Pakistan, indicating that Article 5 did not cover all migration scenarios. In State Trading Corporation v. CTO (1963), the Supreme Court emphasized that Part II provisions were meant to settle citizenship questions at the commencement and not to operate prospectively, which was later governed by parliamentary legislation under Article 11.